Norway

NORWAY is part of Scandinavia, in northern Europe

DOCTOR WHO IN NORWAY

Doctor Who did not air on any terrestrial stations in Norway, but viewers could see the programme during the late 1980s via the UK satellite station BBC Prime.

Audition Prints

However, the Norwegian broadcaster NRK did audition the series on several occasions. Thanks to Christian Bjørgen, who supplied us with the following information:

I thought I'd give some information regarding Doctor Who in Norway; having mailed NRK (the main broadcaster here) with questions, here's what I found out:

• Norway received viewing copies on at least four occasions:

1) NRK received viewing prints in 1967 or 1968, and that it was "a Dalek story" (ed: This was probably The Daleks, since the first three serials were usually supplied for auditioning purposes, and of note, The Daleks had been sent to Denmark in March 1968, so it's a strong possibility that the same set of films was then sent on to Norway…). The series was rejected due to cost, as NRK - being a fairly new channel - could barely afford their own programming. The NRK did request that the BBC stay in touch with new offers when they had more to spend on series since the channel was still new and needed to build some capital for such a purchase

2) In 1973, Jon Pertwee stories, but they didn't know which serials, but they could still not afford it

3) In 1981, several Tom Baker stories, but they declined to pick up the series due to lack of interest in science fiction in Norway (did not know the exact stories here either)

4) In 1985, they had viewing copies of The Caves of Androzani and The Twin Dilemma, but once again declined to pick it up

• On all four occasions the films/tapes were returned to the BBC.
• The 1996 TV Movie aired in Norway in early 2005 as a "prequel" to the New Series. The first series of the new series (with Christopher Eccleston) aired in the summer of 2005, just after it aired in the UK, but due to low figures it was not picked up for more series.
• In both 2012 and 2013 it was the No 1 series on Netflix in Norway, and there has been several attempts to have NRK pick up the series again.

"Pyramidene På Mars" video

Video

In late 1985, Sesam Video released Pyramids of Mars on video. Titled "Pyramidene På Mars", it had the original English audio with Norwegian subtitles. This was the only Doctor Who video ever released in Norway. (Sesam also released the same story on video in Finland in 1986.)